The Underground Railroad And The Civil Rights Movement Essay

The Underground Railroad And The Civil Rights Movement Essay

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Underground Railroad
"I have heard that so many slaves are escaping into freedom along a route that could not be as certain, slave owners said there must be an Underground Railroad under the Ohio River and on to the North (Demand)." The Underground Railroad was a network of secret routes and safe houses used by 19th-century slaves in the United States in order to escape to the slave free states with the help of some courageous people. Slaves had been reported escaping way before the movement began. Over the span of 200 years, the slaves grew tired of the mistreatment. Southern states tightened their legislation, it was made known anyone who helped a slave escape, would be condemned to prison or beaten brutally (Hudson). The struggle for equality in the 1800s was brutal, but within these times of struggle a new revolution began.
"The Underground Railroad" was not really a railroad, but a title to a 200 year old struggle for freedom (Demand). "The Railroad" became the first civil rights movement for the United States, and one of the most impacting movements to date. It was also one of the first times in history where blacks and whites intermingled for the same cause in coherence. The actual operation was called "the freedom train" and on that imaginary train there were "conductors", these people later came to be known as the activists for the abolition of slavery. These brave men and women performed life risking tasks that led them to help as many slaves to escape as possible. These heroes gradually became incredibly well known over the decades. Many still have their names today like Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglass, Henry Thoreau, Harriet Beecher Stowe and many more. (Demand)
There are many speculations of the Underground R...

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...ally came to a close when the infamous railroad was finally discovered.
On May 25, 2013 The Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad National Monument- was proclaimed by President Barrack Obama. America is now a slave free country thanks to the efforts shown by abolitionists like the ones involved in the Underground Railroad. In the city of Cambridge, Maryland sits the 18 square mile national monument that pays tribute, honor, and gratitude to the last civil rights movement, and serves as a reminder of the slaves and their struggle to reach freedom, and also serves as a memorial for the ones who lost their lives fighting. The national monument was specifically dedicated to the mother of the operation, Harriet Tubman, because she is considered to be the main activist who not only saved herself from slavery, but strived to save over three hundred people along with her.

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- Lornelle Mendoza DeMarco USI History H 28 May 2016 The Underground Railroad During the Civil War, African Americans in the south struggled to obtain their basic human rights from the government and were degraded in society. As slaves, they had to endure torture and hard labor for a long period of time. One particular slave, named Harriet Tubman, sought a way to save her people from their suffering and she created the Underground Railroad with many abolitionists by her side. Together, they built a system that would impact slave 's lives north negatively and positively.... [tags: Slavery in the United States, Compromise of 1850]

- Introduction: Overview and Summary Statements The Underground Railroad was one of the most pivotal movements in American history with both sides of the debate pointing to it’s impact in pushing the nation towards Civil War. The Railroad’s admirers glorify it as one of the proudest moments in American History, an example of the weak standing up to the powerful, an active refusal to acknowledge the legitimacy of odious and sinful laws that stated that one man could be the property of another.... [tags: Civil Disobedience Essays]

- America is a young country and has already developed a rich and multi faceted history. Its history is both bright and ominous as we as a nation have been openly discriminating against African-Americans for many years. For nearly as many years as Americans have been discriminating against African-Americans, people have been fighting for some form of equal rights for everyone, especially the African-Americans. History has shown that African-Americans have had some of the most valuable personal contributions that invariably led to the balancing of the tides of the American population.... [tags: Black Civil Rights in America]

- Throughout the history of the United States there have been many reform movements that have molded the culture we live in today. The rights that we as Americans enjoy today can be credited to the people who fought for more rights and a better way of life. Two reform movements that have changed America for the better are the Abolitionist Movement and the Civil Rights Movement. Around the 1820’s the feeling of legal slavery was changing in the United States. The south depended on slaves to harvest their crops, and the north felt that slavery was unconstitutional, unethical, and cruel.... [tags: The Civil Rights Movement]

- Civil rights are the rights to personal liberty and are provided by the law. The Constitution and the Bill of Rights promises everybody civil rights. But many people, including lots of black people, have been denied their civil rights. Black people, and also some white people who help them, have struggled for these rights for a long time. Many people have helped and many kinds of groups have been formed to help win equal rights for everyone. Things are a lot better used to be, but the struggle is not over.... [tags: Racism, Civil Rights, Discrimination]

- Once let the black man get upon his person the brass letter, U.S., let him get an eagle on his button, and a musket on his shoulder and bullets in his pocket, there is no power on earth that can deny that he has earned the right to citizenship." --Frederick Douglass African-Americans in the Civil war were not treated with respect. They were slaves to white people, and to me that's not right. During the Civil war they worked on plantations owned by rich white people. Some were nice and some were harsh.... [tags: Civil Rights]

- The Underground Railroad and Iowa: On the Road from Slavery to Freedom “I looked at my hands to see if I was the same person… There was such a glory over everything. The sun came up like gold through the trees, and I felt like I was in Heaven.” Harriet Tubman uttered these words when she arrived in Pennsylvania, a free woman at last (National Geographic). Years later, when talking about the reasons she ran away, Ms. Tubman would state, “[There are] two things I [have] a right to and these are Death and Liberty.... [tags: Exploratory Essays Research Papers]

- Civil disobedience is the refusal to obey civil laws in an effort to induce change in governmental policy or legislation, characterized by the use of passive resistance or other nonviolent means. The use of nonviolence runs throughout history however the fusion of organized mass struggle and nonviolence is relatively new. The militant campaign for women’s suffrage in Britain included a variety of nonviolent tactics such as boycotts, noncooperation, limited property destruction, civil disobedience, mass marches and demonstrations.... [tags: Civil Disobedience Essays]

- During the early nineteenth century the United States began to split, but at the middle of the century people views started to become more concrete and so separation in the Union became more drastic. From 1850 to 1861 it was apparent that the union was separating into the North and the South. The Constitution played a major role in the separation that was occurring. Through sectional favoritism of bits and pieces of the Constitution and through ideas that were left out of it, the Constitution led to sectional discord and nearly the failure of the union.... [tags: civil war, USA, history,]

- Introduction Civil disobedience has always been a debated and polar opinionated topic since the first days that it was presented. Whenever it comes to going against a law that is set in stone as something to abide by in a society, some controversial actions are going to follow. The person who played the role as somewhat of a backbone in this movement was Henry Thoreau. In 1849, when Henry Thoreau re-iterated the idea of civil disobedience to the people of American following the Mexican war, it was viewed by some as extremely controversial, some viewed it as treason, and then there were the followers that were completely accepting of it and felt it necessary.... [tags: Protest Social Civil Disobedience]